Who ever made this deserves a pay raise

[RasheedsBigWhiteSpot]

Sorry, but you totally missed the point. He never said you can't criticize. But it is one thing to respectfully discuss moves/decisions/whatever and another to be an idiot just bashing everything.

I'm sorry, I guess I overlooked where someone said Donnie had a small d---.  Rather, everything I read/watched/wrote was just a pointed evaluation of him as a GM.

[michaeltex]

I know that it's a really fun time to knock Donnie right now but I would like to remind everyone that the last time we found a franchise player we did pretty well with trades:

Traded for Jet
Traded for Devin Harris
Traded for Shawn Marion (S&T)
Traded for Kidd
Traded for Tyson Chandler
Traded for Caron Butler/Haywood/Stevenson (cashing in on J-Ho at his peak value probably too)

There were plenty of mistakes, the biggest being letting Nash walk (although we got a Finals appearance quickly after that) and plan powder/letting Tyson walk.

We're bad at free agency, bad with late first round picks which actually brings me joy when we talk about Luka's giant extension because we'll go back to just trading our picks and operating over the cap which we've proven to be better at.

We've been kind of stagnant over the last few years (though I would argue we had major shakeups in the mid 2010s, Donnie gave all the same lip service about continuity after the 2014 Spurs series then we came back with 3 different starters) but as soon as we got Luka you could see the wheels turning again with the KP trade (which had a general consensus of being the right move at the time, same with his max contract).

KP trade hasn't worked out but I've watched us identify things that haven't worked out and cut ties in past (Odom, Rondo, Parsons, Avery) and I expect that to happen this offseason and will be pretty disappointed if it doesn't.

Not saying the front office doesn't have some glaring flaws at times (bidding against ourselves has been a weird habit lately) but we've gotten to follow a franchise for the past 2 decades that had only 1 rebuild that lasted only 3 years largely because Donnie identified Dirk and Luka as players to mortgage the immediate future for and our ability to identify a championship coach in Rick.

Probably could have gotten more out of the Dirk era, probably could have gotten less too but the fact that we constantly altered that roster with pretty significant moves around him for 21 years gives me plenty of hope we'll do the same with Luka.  Lots riding on how willing Cuban is to go into the luxury tax this time around.  Time will tell but we only have one bad move we've made so far in the Luka era but we overcame bad moves in the Dirk era by following them up with good ones so.....fingers crossed I guess.

There were some early roster moves that didn't work well. Dampier, anyone? Antoine Walker, anyone? But the FO kept plugging until it all came together in the 2006 Miami Heist. But they kept working on opportunities until getting the Larry O in 2011. 

Dirk was in the league 7 years to get to the Finals. Jordan was in for like 6 or 7 before getting there. I think LBJ was 6 years to get there. Duncan won early because SAS sandbagged to get him while Robinson was hurt. So a little patience is needed to get the right parts in place, because sometimes you don't know the parts fit (or don't) until you try them. Nobody though JET was special when he first arrived.

My biggest disappointment with the MBT is their refusal to try and keep the 2011 team together. Another year to defend their title and prove to the doubters that it wasn't a fluke would have been great. But they got lazy and thought cap space would buy something it couldn't.

[dirkfansince1998]

If Cuban isn't willing to go into the lux tax anymore, that makes a lot of contract decisions horrible!

That´s the main difference. In the past Cuban used his money to make up for bad trades or signings. A bigger payroll can compensate for some front office short comings. At least somewhat comparable to the current Clippers. That´s the advantage of a soft cap. At least for guys like Ballmer.
Big difference: In the 2000s only three teams went deep into luxury tax range. Mavs, Knicks and Lakers. Mavs still rank 3rd all time in luxury tax spendings (no tax after the championship). Knicks rank 1st. Followed by the Cavs (LeBron teams 2007-2009, 2014-2017). In recent years the Warriors and Thunder went deep into the tax.

[ThisIStheYear]

WTF is Donnie doing calling out Luka for selfish play?  STFU and get that man some help!

[Scott41theMavs]

WTF is Donnie doing calling out Luka for selfish play?  STFU and get that man some help!

This hasn't been said enough, tbqh. I hope Luka isn't as pissed as he ought to be.

[Kammrath]

WTF is Donnie doing calling out Luka for selfish play?  STFU and get that man some help!

Saving KP's trade value by throwing Luka under the bus....hopefully Luka is in the loop on it.